英语听力精选进阶版 14290（在线收听）

BBC Learning English

Video Words in the News 

14 August 2013

Secret taxi driver

Transcript:

Taxi!

Behind the sunglasses and uniform is no ordinary cabbie…

It's actually Norway's Prime Minster Jens Stoltenberg, working incognito in Oslo.

He said taxis were the best place to hear the views of ordinary Norwegians.

Passengers were astonished when they discovered who was driving. 

But, he is unlikely to moonlight again; Stoltenberg hasn't driven for eight years, so his skills are a little rusty.

Vocabulary:

cabbie

informal word for 'taxi driver'

incognito

avoiding being recognised by changing appearance; in disguise

astonished

shocked and surprised

to moonlight

to work at an extra job, without telling your main employer

rusty

(of a skill) needing practice; not as good as it was in the past

Exercise:

Use one of the words or phrases below to complete each of these sentences from news reports. 

Note that you may have to change the form of a word to complete the sentence correctly.

cabbie / incognito / astonished / to moonlight / rusty

1.  Mr Hughes said he had been _________ by the reaction to the film, which received 110,000 hits on YouTube in the first week after it was posted.

2.  First broadcast in 2004, Veronica Mars told of a high-school student who moves on to college while _________ as a private investigator.

3.  As Londoners will know some of the capital's _________ are not shy about sharing their views on everything from politics to the latest fashions.

Now one driver, Michael Dennis, has started reciting his own poetry to passengers.

4.  Jean Moulin was the former prefect who, in January 1942, was sent by General de Gaulle to organise the anti-German underground. For a yearand-a-half, he travelled _________ around occupied France, using the pseudonyms Rex then Max.

5.  Question: Do you get nervous playing your new singles for the first time and why?

Robbie Williams: Yes because I haven't done anything for three years. You just feel a bit _________. 

Answers:

1.  Mr Hughes said he had been astonished by the reaction to the film, which received 110,000 hits on You Tube in the first week after it was posted.

Source: Teachers reward pupils with Gangnam Style performance

2.  First broadcast in 2004, Veronica Mars told of a high-school student who moves on to college while moonlighting as a private investigator.

Source: Veronica Mars fans make film dream a reality 

3.  As Londoners will know some of the capital's cabbies are not shy about sharing their views on everything from politics to the latest fashions. 

Now one driver, Michael Dennis, has started reciting his own poetry to passengers.

Source: All the world's a poem for London cabbie       

4.  Jean Moulin was the former prefect who, in January 1942, was sent by General de Gaulle to organise the anti-German underground. For a year-and-a-half, he travelled incognito around occupied France, using the pseudonyms Rex then Max.

Source: Raymond Aubrac: How I tricked the Gestapo    

5.  Question: Do you get nervous playing your new singles for the first time and why?

Robbie Williams: Yes because I haven't done anything for three years. You just feel a bit rusty.

Source: Robbie kicks off Electric Proms